Jockey from the Land of the Rising Sun has become rising star at Woodbine

Gray Phantom, a six-year-old gelding trained by Jim Ensom, hugged the rail in fourth-place heading into the final turn on the Woodbine turf course in the $50,000 Gray Handicap on a recent Sunday afternoon.

As the 10-horse field moved into the stretch, apprentice jockey Kazushi Kimura found a seam and rocketed Gray Phantom through, winning the special stakes for grays and roans by a head over Macho Dancer, with Woodbine’s leading jockey Eurico Da Silva on board.

Afterwards, a smiling Kimura accepted congratulations from Gray Phantom’s connections but also from trainers of horses he just defeated. After posing for pictures in the winner’s circle, the 19-year-old jockey tossed one of his custom-made T-shirts to a young fan in the stands. All in a day’s work for Kimura, who has established himself this season as one of the most exciting young riders Woodbine has seen in years.

Jockeys are among the most dedicated athletes in professional sport. They have to be. It’s not a activity to be taken lightly. There’s the inherent danger of the sport, plus the jocks have to make weight every day. There’s also the ridiculous hours. Since arriving at Woodbine, Kimura has taken that dedication to another level.

In March, the then 18-year-old left his native Japan to try his hand at a major North American track. Speaking virtually no English and knowing no one in this part of the world other than Woodbine apprentice Daisuke Fukumoto, Kimura found an apartment in the east end of Toronto, pretty well the furthest one could get from the west-end track while still being in the city.

Each day he left his apartment at 3 a.m. to make the two-and-a-half-hour trek to Woodbine (on three different TTC bus routes), the last letting him off on the north side of Woodbine where he had to walk over a mile to get to the backstretch.

After exercising horses for veteran trainers Reade Baker and Kevin Attard, Kimura repeated the journey over again in the opposite direction, just in time to get home, eat, crash and begin the routine all over the next day.

“And he was doing it in -20C weather,” said Kimura’s agent, Jordan Miller. “After every race day, he went back home and watched what happened that night (in the races at Woodbine) with an eye looking forward to riding those horses in the future and what could be done different. Now, with every horse that he rides, he’s looking at 3-4-5 replays of those horses. He sees what works with that horse and what doesn’t work.”

Kimura’s dedication is paying off. The native of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido is considered the best apprentice jockey the track has seen since Emma-Jayne Wilson was named outstanding apprentice in 2005. Kimura will maintain his ‘bug status’ until next October, and that gives him a chance to do some really big things in 2019. An apprentice is allowed to carry fewer pounds than journeymen jockeys and that is considered a major advantage. Kimura’s goal is to be the leading rider at Woodbine by the end of the 2019 season.

The personable teenager was destined to become a jock. His father runs a thoroughbred training centre in Hokkaido and young Kazushi rode his first pony when he was six. By 10, the soft-spoken rider decided that he wanted to become a jockey and at 14 he left home to travel to the Japan Racing School in Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture, where he remained for two and a half years learning all aspects of the sport, from grooming to exercise riding to racing.

Once he graduated, Kimura decided to try racing in another part of the world, partly because breaking in as a jockey in Japan is extremely difficult.

“I was thinking Australia or Canada,” said Kimura, whose English has come a long way in the last few months. “The racing at Woodbine is very clean and I hear from (Fukumoto) that there is a very good training track. And very good course, that’s why I wanted to try here.”

Kimura made his riding debut at Woodbine on May 27 and won his first race on June 9 aboard Tornado Cat, a 70-1 longshot for trainer Shelly Fitzgerald, in just his 11th start. He won his first stakes race on Aug. 29 with Speedy Soul in the $177,400 OLG Muskoka Stakes, for trainer Andrew Smith. On Oct. 12, Kimura recorded a five-win day at Woodbine, including back-to-back wins for trainer Norm McKnight.

The buzz is that Kimura is absolutely for real and it’s brought some added excitement to the track.

“For a young rider just starting out his career, I think he’s extremely talented. And the fact that he gets the weight advantage, it really makes a big difference,” said McKnight, Woodbine’s leading trainer in races won.

“Because he has a lot of talent and the ability to ride well, that’s why I try to use him as much as I can because I’m a big believer that weight is the name of the game. But I think this lad will be extremely good. I think he’s one of the few bugs, when his bug career is over, he’ll go on to be a very accomplished rider.”

Horse racing is full of stories of outstanding apprentice riders who fail to make it big after they lose their weight allowance. But around Woodbine, almost everyone seems to think that Kimura will continue to shine after he loses his bug.

“He looks great on a horse,” said Hall of Fame jockey Sandy Hawley, who in 1969 rode 230 winners, the most that year of any apprentice in North America. “Both of the two Japanese riders (Kimura and Fukumoto) here look good on horses. But you never know. Steve Cauthen ended up being taken off Affirmed and he just won the Triple Crown with the horse.”

Kimura sits in sixth place in the Woodbine jockey standings with 75 victories in 523 starts (and another 15 at Fort Erie) with earnings of $2.7 million. Not to say it’s all been smooth sailing. Kimura’s aggressiveness has landed him in some trouble. On Oct. 20, he was disqualified in two different races for interference and was slapped with a three-day suspension for his troubles. But not everybody sees that aggressiveness as a bad thing.

“He’s an aggressive rider, which sometimes gets him in trouble, but that’s what I like about him,” said Ensom, a former Chicago Blackhawks draft pick. “He sees the hole and he always goes for it, although sometimes almost to a fault. But I like that about him.”

A couple of weeks ago, Kimura was forced to book off after he was kicked by a horse in the paddock before the seventh race. He went to the hospital for X-rays and was released, sore but OK. It’s a tough game. The next day he was back at the track. Still smiling.

His time learning the trade at the Japan Racing School gives Kimura the look of a seasoned rider.

“I find with Kimura, along with Fukumoto, and Tommy Wong who came from Hong Kong a few years ago, they’ve come over a lot more polished, they switch sticks like they’ve ridden races before. They look a lot more experienced than a lot of other local apprentice riders,” said Equibase chart caller Doug McPherson.

“And I think horses settle for him very well, they relax, which is good. And in my opinion, he makes pretty smart tactical decisions. He rides a pretty smart race.”

Miller said he noticed Kimura’s natural ability the first time he saw him galloping a horse on the Woodbine training track.

“I’ve been around the racetrack my whole life and have seen riders come and go and he just had a natural ability to be low on a horse, being in sequence with a horse,” said Miller. “He has that patience, doesn’t rush horses. The first time I saw him work a horse, I just knew I had to approach him and see what was going on. It was just there.”

Kimura has also scored marks for his personality. Though his English isn’t great, the Japanese rider has endeared himself to almost everyone in the backstretch.

“He’s a great kid,” said Miller. “Always has a smile on his face, everyone loves him, says hello to everybody. He’s very grateful for what everybody does back here. He knows it’s not just him that’s making the horses win. He knows the grooms try hard, the exercise riders …

“Everybody enjoys having him around,” added Ensom.

Kimura plans to visit home in the off-season before returning to Woodbine again in April for the start of the 2019 season. As for now, he spends most his of spare time watching tapes of races.

As for how he spends his only day off (Mondays), Kimura smiled and said: “Sleeping.”

This Week's Flyers

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.